We celebrate the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God throughout the Latin rite today, at least in the Ordinary form of the liturgy. In honor of Mary, the Θεοτόκος, the “theotokos” or “God bearer”, I’d like to present a short audio clip of Catholic evangelist Steve Ray discussing the idea of Mary as the “new Ark of the Covenant”.

In this clip, Steve provides several astounding parallels between 2 Samuel 6:2-11 and Luke 1:39-44, and shows that the inspired Gospel writer considered the Ark of the Covenant of the Old Testament to be a “type” or prefiguring of our Blessed Mother.

The Ark of the Covenant, as you may remember, was that precious box hauled around by the Israelites, covered in gold, never to be profaned, and containing the stone tablets of the commandments, the manna, and the rod of Aaron.

And here is a chart from Steve Ray’s own website that summarizes some of the scriptural parallels (click to enlarge):

Another good written summary of the things that Steve is discussing may be found at Dr. Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, here.

ROME, September 21, 2016 – Pope Francis received in audience a few days ago the Brazilian cardinal Cláudio Hummes, accompanied by the archbishop of Natal, Jaime Vieira Rocha.

Hummes, 82, former archbishop of São Paulo and prefect of the Vatican congregation for the clergy, is today the president both of the commission for the Amazon of the episcopal conference of Brazil and of the Pan-Amazonian Network that joins together 25 cardinals and bishops of the surrounding countryside, in addition to indigenous representatives of different local ethnicities.

And in this capacity he [Hummes] supports, among others, the proposal to make up for the scarcity of celibate priests in immense areas like the Amazon by also conferring sacred ordination upon “viri probati,” meaning married men of proven virtue.

The news of the audience therefore gave the idea that Pope Francis had discussed this very question with Hummes, and in particular an “ad hoc” synod of the 38 dioceses of the Amazon, which is effectively in an advanced phase of preparation.

Not only that. There is renewed vigor behind the rumor that Jorge Mario Bergoglio wants to assign to the next worldwide synod of bishops, scheduled for 2018, precisely the question of ordained ministers, bishops, priests, deacons, including the ordination of married men. Read more.

I was a father to the needy;
I took up the case of the stranger.
I broke the fangs of the wicked
and snatched the victims from their teeth. Job 29:16-17

Four decades ago, some men on Guam suffered terrible sexual abuse at the hands of a powerful churchman.

For four decades,

the men thought that they were alone,
that nobody would ever believe them,
that nobody really cared.

Some churchmen knew, but feared for their own ministries,
and did nothing,
and said nothing,
or perhaps were ignored.

Most of the men moved away.
Most of the men became strangers to us.

But for four decades,

the Church was silent,
the Church hid the problem,
the Church swept the problem under the rug,
“for the good of the faithful,”
“to prevent scandal”.

But this year,

three of these men and one mother, survivors all,
at great personal risk, and with great trepidation, shared their stories publicly with us.

In response,

the Church called the men and the mother “liars”,
the Church said that they were spreading “malicious and calumnious accusations”,
the Church threatened canonical action, and
the Church threatened to sue.

So this year..

Rome sent another powerful churchman to “fix the problem”,
and this powerful churchman arrived on Guam.

But…

this powerful churchman has ignored the men and the mother.
This powerful churchman has not shown that he cares.
This powerful churchman seems intent to hush everything up…
for the sake of “unity”.
This powerful churchman says, “You are either in or you are out.”

Therefore,

it’s time for the faithful…
who are sick of the corruption that reaches even to Rome,
who are sick of the coverups,
who are sick of the secrets,
who are sick of the excuses,

who know that unity requires justice, and that
justice requires truth,

it’s time for us, sinners though we be…

to take up the case of the stranger,
to break the fangs of the wicked, and
to snatch the victims from their teeth.

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"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know Himself..." Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 1998